4&20 blackbirds

The Media Trial Of James Holmes

The media trial of James Holmes began the second we learned his name. After the name we got a still shot of his face, and after that, his first appearance in court, where he acted either chemically restrained or maybe just plain crazy.

Unfortunately it looks like a media trial may be all we can expect, considering the formal judicial process has been sealed tighter than Mitt Romney’s tax history. This from the Denver Post editorial:

In the hours after the horrific Aurora theater shootings, law enforcement authorities were reasonably frank in telling the public what had happened.

All that came to a screeching halt when the criminal case for the alleged shooter hit the court system. The case is proceeding under such sweeping secrecy rules that the public cannot even see the case docket, which is akin to a table of contents. The orders have gone far beyond the typical “gag order.”

That is why The Denver Post and other media outlets filed a motion Friday asking the judge in the case to reconsider the information lockdown and allow public inspection of routine court documents.

The secrecy in the case has been disturbing. Mandating that the University of Colorado, for instance, not release any records regarding the shooting suspect, James Eagan Holmes, is a step too far and one that appears unprecedented.

This quick move by the courts to lock this case up is an obvious red flag. When I finally got some time to go digging, the online terrain quickly began looking like a rabbit hole into all kinds of tangential weirdness.

For example, this reporting by ABC news features an 18 year old James Holmes speaking at science camp about “temporal illusions”

I’ll try to get back to temporal illusions, but I want to move on from this alleged mass killer to his dad, Robert Holmes.

Besides being possibly tied to the LIBOR clusterfuck, Robert Holmes also allegedly spent time working for HNC Software (h/t cryptogon). This is taken from the company profile:

HNC Software Inc. is San Diego’s largest software company and develops predictive software solutions for business-to-consumer service companies. These solutions allow companies to make more intelligent and profitable decisions and are marketed to industries- including financial, insurance, retail, telecommunications and the Internet.

Like many San Diego-based software companies, HNC Software Inc. traces its origins to the defense industry. When the company was launched in 1986, it focused on defense-related research and development. But over the years as defense budgets shrank not only in San Diego, but nationwide, HNC quickly realized that in order to succeed and grow, other commercial applications had to be found for its products. … But perhaps the most exciting frontier awaiting exploration and commercial development by HNC is in an area that scientists still know very little about: the human brain. HNC is working on a long-term research project launched in 1998 that is jointly funded by HNC and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Defense Department, to investigate ‘cortronic neural networks,’ a concept originally proposed by Robert Hecht-Nielsen, HNC’s co-founder and chief scientist.

HNC hopes to develop new capabilities in the areas of textual, aural and visual representation, and to actually build three new predictive, neural-net based systems: one that reads, interprets and searches text more effectively; a second recognizing speech and other sounds, enabling users to perform audio searches; and a third that can scan for and interpret images. The ultimate goal is to integrate all three systems. The net result – machines that someday might be able to reason like humans.

“This is the most important scientific challenge of our time, and finding the answer will be the adventure of the millennium,” says Hecht-Nielsen.

I guess studying the brain, for James, was like continuing the family business.

James Holmes, the man believed responsible for killing 12 people Friday during one of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, is the grandson of a decorated military veteran who was a respected educator at prestigious York School in Monterey.

Lt. Col. Robert M. Holmes, who served in the Okinawa campaign during World War II, retired in 1963 as the last commander of the Nike missile group in San Francisco Bay. He was one of the first Turkish language students at the Army Language School, now the Defense Language Institute, graduating in 1948, a school spokesman confirmed Friday.

A smart kid with a family legacy to live up to makes a prime candidate for a psychotic break, right? He was withdrawing from school, maybe broke up with a girlfriend, into gaming, it all makes sense.

But it doesn’t make sense. A commando-style maniac in ballistic armor who just killed or or injured almost 80 people is apprehended by his car without a fight?

It doesn’t help that the initial reports about James’ allegedly aggressive behavior in jail turned out to be false:

Sources familiar with the detention of theater shooting suspect James Holmes say his low-key detached demeanor has not changed since he was taken into custody early Friday morning.

According to knowledgeable sources, reports that Holmes was spitting at guards in jail are “simply false.”

That story about the notebook James Holmes supposedly mailed to a psychiatrist, outlining his plans to shoot up the movie theater was a hell of a scoop for Fox News, but now Aurora prosecutors are saying in a court filing that it was probably all a big hoax. The new doubts come from a motion prosecutors filed Friday, saying the package from Holmes, discovered in a University of Colorado mailroom, hadn’t yet been inspected and any report of its contents — that would be the notebook — couldn’t be trusted. “The contents were secured and not examined, and held for potential in camera review,” the motion says. The motion comes in response to one from Holmes, and argues that his rights to a fair trial hadn’t been violated (as he’d claimed) by that leaked information because the supposed leaks were either hoaxes the reporters fell for, or made up by the reporters themselves. For evidence, the motion cites two facts it says reporters for Fox News and NBCNews.org got wrong.

So far, the mainstream media hasn’t delved too deeply into any of the weirdness surrounding this mass killing. The Olympics and the presidential race have already snatched back much of the national attention after a week of political posturing around gun laws.

But no one at the Arapahoe County Detention Center is buying Holmes’ story, a lockup worker told the News. The jailers who come in contact with Holmes, who is sequestered from other inmates, believe he’s faking amnesia.

I didn’t know “lockup workers” were qualified to make such assessments. Is this the kind of reporting we can expect from the unofficial media trial of James Holmes?

To come back around to temporal illusions, this Cannonfire piece takes some wild swipes, speculating on the alleged perpetrator’s possible dalliance in hypnosis.

Exploring that line of thought one finds the obligatory mention of MK Ultra (from a Wired article not related to this case):

1953: Central Intelligence Agency director Allen Dulles authorizes the MK-ULTRA project. The agency launches one of its most dubious covert programs ever, turning unsuspecting humans into guinea pigs for its research into mind-altering drugs.

More than a decade before psychologist Timothy Leary advocated the benefits of LSD and urged everyone to “turn on, tune in, drop out,” the CIA’s Technical Services Staff launched the highly classified project to study the mind-control effects of this and other psychedelic drugs, using unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as lab mice.

Dulles wanted to close the “brainwashing gap” that arose after the United States learned that American prisoners of war in Korea were subjected to mind-control techniques by their captors.

Loathe to be outdone by foreign enemies, the CIA sought, through its research, to devise a truth serum to enhance the interrogations of POWs and captured spies. The agency also wanted to develop techniques and drugs — such as “amnesia pills” — to create CIA superagents who would be immune to the mind-control efforts of adversaries.

The CIA has plans to relocate the headquarters of its domestic division, which is responsible for operations and recruitment in the United States, from the CIA’s Langley headquarters to Denver, a move designed to promote innovation, according to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials.

About $20 million has been tentatively budgeted to relocate employees of the CIA’s National Resources Division, officials said. A U.S. intelligence official said the planned move, confirmed by three other government officials, was being undertaken “for operational reasons.”

A CIA spokesman declined to comment. Other current and former intelligence officials said the Denver relocation reflects the desire of CIA Director Porter J. Goss to develop new ways to operate under cover, including setting up more front corporations and working closer with established international firms.

This horrible tragedy in Aurora raises a lot of questions, but with a judicial process committed to secrecy, we can’t expect much in terms of answers. James Holmes will instead be tried by the media, and I doubt the initial depiction of him being a psychotic lone wolf will be challenged.

Which is too bad, because I don’t think James Holmes was the only person involved in this shooting.

I can say with complete confidence that I don’t have the slightest idea of what happened, why, or who other than what I read in the paper/on the net, heard on the radio, or saw on the TV. My guess is that anyone with any brains at all is completely and totally skeptical of the constant propaganda we Americans are subjected to daily.

I agree with you Lizard that people shouldn’t rush to judgement. And they should be open to many interpretations. Why not?

I am positive our government lies to us daily and I’m positive that our government utilizes various forms of media to accomplish that goal.

I have no confidence in our media to get or report good information. While it’s very true that at some times and about some stories our media does get and report good information, it’s also true that often and about many stories our media varies from silent to CIA front organization.

If Matt, Buzz, Pogo and Pbear want to put their faith in our government and the corporate media, it is protected by the first amendment. We can’t pass a law against their religious faith in the truthfulness of TV and government.

I prefer to throw my lot with the skeptics. I have to wonder about whether what I’m being told is true, makes sense, has a hidden agenda, etc. I see that as a modern survival skill of life lived in the Empire.

All valid points, but I still think you’ve hitched your wagon to the Titanic by defending this fella. I think many things (especially those governmental) are illusion-ary. But, I don’t think this is one of them. Yeah, the media is having a field day with this, but I’ll just wait for the court to deal with him. Frankly, i don’t know why you’d be following the media right now and expect any level of accuracy.
As far as conspiracy, I’m just going to trust that the Aurora PD that they grabbed the right guy. I somehow sleep at night knowing this, but I’d say after this comment thread it’s pretty clear I worry about different things than you.

Steve, I am sincerely asking: What the hell are you talking about? The above commenters have not ‘put their faith in the government’ in any way, shape or form. They are, in point of fact, being skeptical about what Lizard has hypothesized here.

Regardless of the assumption (and that it is all it is) that the media and the police and the witnesses and just about everybody else are NOT giving us “good” information, here’s what even the skeptical can agree about:

There was one shooter, and only one.

The weapons used were actually recovered by the police, and all were purchased by J.E. Holmes.

Holmes’ apartment was booby-trapped with materials, again, acquired by Holmes.

Holmes purchased a ticket to the movie while wearing ‘costume’ which has been tied to the attack.

The early reports from the police, before the info lockdown, were that Holmes himself warned the authorities of the booby-traps in his apartment, and claimed affinity to the ‘Joker’ character. Ask yourself this, if Holmes hadn’t warned them of the booby-traps, how did they know to go through the 3rd floor bathroom window instead of the front door? Oh right, the CIA.

That would be means, motive and opportunity. Despite the grandiose claims that this is being “tried in the press”, it is no such thing. It will be tried in a court of law, because all those elements are present. That is exactly how it should be. The truly ironic thing about this post is that as Lizard laments the lack of transparency to the evidence, such transparency would deny Holmes a fair trial by jury and is actually calling for a trial by public opinion.

Is it possible Holmes didn’t do it? Sure it is, slim as that is. Is it possible he had accomplices? Absolutely, and I hope they are uncovered, if that is the case. Is it possible that the CIA was doing medical experiments on this bright young man? Well, certainly. Is it possible that the Obama administration perpetrated this horrible act to get further funding and support for erosion of civil rights with draconian gun laws? Read Storm Front. They’ve been claiming that from the beginning. Now I’m not saying that it could have been aliens, but it could have been aliens.

Simply put, there is rational skepticism, and then there is irrational bias towards a goal. This post is obviously the latter.

Calling a truce, if you’ll have one. Confidence about that is not high.

Seriously, why is a ‘conspiracy theory’ about Obama perpetrating this act of evil any more ridiculous than the suggestion that it was a CIA experimental program of drug induced mind-control?

Peggy Noonan, back in 2000, posited that Bill Clinton was being blackmailed by Fidel Castro. Her response was epic in it’s loaded appeal to emotion and lack of logic or fact. She wrote:

“Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.”

I suggest to you that it is irresponsible to speculate, and even more irresponsible to think that others should have to. I, for one, am curious that this case is due the secrecy that has been court decreed. I can also see about a dozen reasons why the court would have required such secrecy. Not the least of those is that the Denver federal office wants to keep such a high profile case ‘in house’ as it were. Most of those reasons are not nefarious at all. What I don’t see is a reason to speculate that the CIA, the NSA, The FDA, the ATF, the NASA or the fricken MICKEY MOUSE would maneuver the case to protect gubmint chicanery.

You seem to think, Lizard, that those who are “curious” should be as “disturbed” as a media outlet that didn’t get it’s juicy story. How about “No”.

You appear upset that others are not following your “intuition”. No problem, seriously. A lot of things don’t feel right about this. First and foremost is that it doesn’t feel right that an asshole killed 12 people and shot about 60 more. That is kind of upsetting, and it really doesn’t feel right. But it also doesn’t take the CIA to accomplish that deed. Unless you’d like to further speculate …

though i cringe at this particular post, lizard has every right to put it out there, just as i and others have every right to judge its worth.

judgment is used by everyone daily. from which coffee to buy to what politician to support. each person’s judgment is framed by their own experiences. but when forensic evidence supports the facts, it is pretty much beyond the shadow of a doubt.

we appear to be living in the age of hysteria where denial of fact in communication today is beginning to resemble the tower of babble. reason must enter in here somewhere.

I admit that i do believe that armstrong really touched down and walked on the moon.

i also believe the scientific community when they tell us that the amount of carbon dioxide produced on this planet is exceeding the carrying capacity of a finite atmosphere where we are at the point of no return and eventually, the destruction of oxygen based life forms.

I also believe that jihad terrorists really did bring down the towers.

I hope there’s a calm, objective examination of what transpired in Aurora because that’s what the victims families deserve, and also it will shut up crazy people like me who get associated with Moon landing skepticism every time I speculate from the “deep end”.

part of what fuels initial confusion in situations like these is the unreliability of eyewitness accounts. this from The Innocence Project:

Eyewitness misidentification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in nearly 75% of convictions overturned through DNA testing.

While eyewitness testimony can be persuasive evidence before a judge or jury, 30 years of strong social science research has proven that eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Research shows that the human mind is not like a tape recorder; we neither record events exactly as we see them, nor recall them like a tape that has been rewound. Instead, witness memory is like any other evidence at a crime scene; it must be preserved carefully and retrieved methodically, or it can be contaminated.

I acknowledge I have a bias in writing about this, and it’s one I’ve been pretty up front about. the CIA’s experimenting in the 50’s and 60’s with LSD for the purposes of mind control (from the cold war paranoia that never went away) is something that really shook my worldview when I first read about it.

I don’t think that experimentation just ended, which is why I continue to be interested in tracking the consequences, whether it’s how prisoners are psychologically tortured in US black sites across the world, or how certain techniques of “persuasion” have been monetized by the advertising industry.

now, there’s no indication any of that has any bearing on what happened in Aurora, and if it did, we’ll probably never hear about it, but like I said, something just doesn’t feel right about this.

I am curious about your cringe reaction Pbear. I’ve often been curious as to what makes unindicted people fight against highly implausible as well as highly plausible conspiracy theories; Have you been hit in the head with a hardcover copy of THE AFTERNOON OF MARCH 30TH by former UofM J-school dean and recently deceased Montanan Nathaniel Blumberg?

I think jihadists were brought into the country by US intelligence people as both double agents and pilots to run lawyers, guns, drugs and money, and then our intell guys got burned bad and covered their ass. Or was the 9/11 commission well run, fair and thorough in your opinion?

If they got the right guy or not we will never know if they keep everything secret.

Lizard, you are a smart fellow. You have good communication skills, you’re a talented poet, write exceptionally well, work hard at your job, are committed to an admirable employer, advocate for what many consider worthy causes and represent yourself well in public. Yet your constant conspiracy rants marginalize your future as a potentially effective community leader and diminish people’s perceptions of you as an intelligent reasonable person.

Your lengthening list of worn out conspiracies (the list I keep on you is up to 8 conspiracies now) makes you sound as paranoid and as delusional as the far right conspiracy theorists you frequently attack as being paranoid and delusional. For your own sake, try to resolve this inner issue and get on with more meaningful things in your life.

Pogo does keep a list of everything I’ve expressed skepticism about, but I’m sure he’s the only one keeping a list, because our government doesn’t collect information on US citizens like that. saying that would be paranoid and delusional ;)

Pogo, paranoia is getting more mainstream every day (which is something I’m not ashamed to have written about here) and along with the paranoia comes fear. that’s what keeps parents from vaccinating their children, and that’s what packs city council out of concerns over the evil UN’s Agenda 21. I hope you put some of your energy toward communicating your concern about the debilitating mindset of paranoia with the people you interact with.

as for your concern about me, thanks? (have we met?)

if you’re trying to honestly appeal to my saner, more credible tendencies, you could start by not misrepresenting the tone and frequency of my “conspiracy” posts.

now I love me a good rant, but this is not a rant. this is a long post with plenty of flaws, but it’s not one I regret writing. and I’ve written over 250 posts, so your list of 8 (I’m sure I’ve written more “conspiracy” posts than that) doesn’t fit with your description of these “rants” being “constant”.

you know Pogo, I was only two years out of high school when Columbine happened. I came from an idyllic suburb just like Littleton, in a school that looked very similar. it was very disturbing and disorienting. nowadays mass killings, usually done by youngish males, happen with alarming frequency. JC wrote a good post, relating this phenomena to a societal sickness. I agree with him.

artistic expression is one of the ways I process living within a sick system; I see poetry as a sort of linguistic battle to keep language from turning against us as humans. coercion and control exist within language, as Orwell knew so well, and its different delivery mediums, which McLuhan understood. I like understanding things, and I realized early on if I wanted to infuse my poems with something bigger than confessional navel-gazing, then I needed to try keep an open mind about how the forces of culture and our experiences shape our thoughts and attitudes.

anyway, I mostly appreciate your commentary here, Pogo. you seem like a very reasonable fellow.

There is another mass killing in the world after James Holmes: a boy known only as Li. He killed 9 people and injured 5 and is in police custody. It took place in the People’s Republic of China and the boy is going to be executed and cremated according to Chinese law and the nine victims are going to be cremated in China as well.

I commented.
He has to be taken out of, solitary confinement, especially and placed into a non threatening friendly environment so that he can come out of his psychosis sufficiently to explain what happened from the time he went over the edge. This would be not long after starting his PhD and may have involved experimenting with LSD. It is HIS explanation that is needed to to stop this sort of thing repeating itself and it will not be forthcoming as long as he is treated like a rabid dog. He has to feel that he is not implicating himself by talking, meaning charges against him have to be dropped. Confined for his own protection. A big ask? No. He didn’t kill and maim those people, the US did as it spawned him.

I believe that initially he wired up his flat with explosives to prevent another tenant taking his apartment, because he only had a month to get out once he resigned his PhD course and faced homelessness. The $26,000 he was paid by the NIH was probably all the money he had and he would have had to pay that back leaving him broke, psychotic and homeless, no friends, no offers of real help from ANYWHERE. So he uses the money to buy the explosives and the guns and ammo, keeping some for food. How much credit card debt did he have Was he paying his car off and was behind in payments, threatened with repossession? Backed into a corner with NO escape?

Being faced with forced eviction with the very real possibility of a confrontation with the police, in which case he could be shot dead, armed or not armed or with just a carving knife. Happens a lot in Australia, attitude good riddance. What the police don’t seem to realise that every schizophrenic that reads or hears about the shooting of a schizophrenic, become terrified that they might be next. Very rarely is there an inquiry, which always exonerates the police anyway. Recently 5 cops in Victoria couldn’t stop a 14 year old kid yielding a knife from advancing on them, despite using capsicum spray on him, and shot him dead. What about a dart tranquilliser gun, pure ammonia in some sort of water pistol. To many other paranoid schizophrenics that was MURDER.

What property he had would be thrown out into the street LEGALLY and stolen, possibly by neighbors only too keen to help out. Forget legal right for a psychotic. Everybody, police included, just ignore the law to get rid of a nutter. Hope he commits suicide. This is reality and what CREATES psychosis and a hatred of society that goes with it.

So I reckon he was initially preparing for a gun siege from his flat, having the strategic advantage of being on the second floor, preferring to die in his flat than out in the gutter somewhere. Who would care. NOBODY. How the hell do 3 shrinks help in any way. He needed REAL help, not coercive mumbo jumbo and a poisonous antipsyvhotic. Unfortunately it just ain’t available. If it was there’d be no such thing as psychosis. So US, put yourself on trial.

I just posted a comment and it has disappeared. Am I being singled out for moderation because I try to balance the equation. A comment has JUST been posted and it appears, but not mine. Does this nation wish to see things from Holmes point of view or does it wish the massacres to, not only go on, but get worse and more frequent. I have been through psychosis but didn’t resort to violence, hence being here to write the balance, but not if it is invisible. Huff post is doing the same thing. Put a post on CNN the other night and next day ALL comments were TURNED OFF. PBS on AND off and back on again. A schizophrenic press, methinks. Freedom of speech? People who have gone THROUGH psychosis are EXTREMELY thin on the ground folks so don’t expect another to pop up any time soon. Sarcasm, tongue in cheek, terrible cynicism, make people squirm. Better all that than the US drowns in a river of blood because it wishes to persist with its vast self righteousness and self delusion.

That last paragraph shouldn’t have been included. It was a stuff up, a paragraph from another article I wrote. Someone read it and commented “Is that you James?” I should have replied that I’d just acquired a tank. No poncing around with little guns this time round.

THE LATEST NEWS STORY ON CBS. HOLMES SAW 3 PSYCHIATRISTS Part 2.
A comment was about all of the protocols involved in detaining someone seen as dangerous, enforced medication etc.

I replied
All of the psychiatry, all of the intervention and drugs don’t help the patient one iota, just makes things worse. The LABEL schizophrenia means YOU ARE MAD and as such are TOTALLY unpredictable and capable of EXTREME violence, thereby frightening the patient as much as peers as to what he or she might do. Thus the label is EXTREMELY alienating. Alienation disconnects, disconnection breeds speculation which in turn feed paranoia on BOTH sided.

Antipsychotics are so toxic with such extreme side effects they just convince someone already paranoid they are being deliberately put down by the State. Enforced medication with Modecate just creates even more fear and RESENTMENT. None of this stuff addresses the alienation, worsening bullying, being avoided, patronized, debt, homelessness etc. that FEED psychosis. It is NOT hereditary but results from a process of abuse that may start at birth.

I’ve read a lot of the abstracts on schizophrenia at the Medical Dept Uni Col Denver and they are pretty bog standard stuff. A genetic predisposition to a defect in cognition crops up a lot in people diagnosed as schizophrenic, therefore said defect predisposes to schizophrenia. Bollocks. The defect in cognition makes the kid a bit ‘weird’ and might create learning difficulties, difficulties in communication etc. These differences single the kid out for merciless bullying and it is the BULLYING that creates schizophrenia and any resultant violence.

However, after something like this, NOBODY with admit to the tiniest bit of bullying, negligence, incompetence, being patronizing, ridiculing etc. whatsoever. Quite the opposite in fact. Everybody bent over backward till the fingers bled trying the help this ungrateful @#%&#*)*. All nod their heads in agreement with each other. Bang, bang, bang. Hey what the hell happened?

Just how many people actually knew that he was holed up in that flat, armed to the teeth, but were to scared to do anything, cops included, concerned that they MIGHT have contributed to the situation, but would NEVER admit it. Hope he’ll blow his brains out then everyone can relax. Holmes would be able to work that out as he has NEVER received any real help whatsoever.

Any threats he made were an attempt to FORCE people to help when begging didn’t work, to get PUBLICITY about his desperate plight. But all that did was scare people even more, himself included. What if he WANTED to be stopped from committing the massacre, hence sending Fenton the notebook with the drawing of stick figures being shot. Figured that if he got stopped, publicity would be inevitable and people would at last know of his desperation and he’d get all the help in the world, just like bushfire, flood and earthquake victims. Then when there was no response because the notebook was delayed in the mail, he figured that the system WANTED him to commit the massacre. Massacre becomes inevitable, Holmes by now TOTALLY psychotic, just a bit more so than the rest of the society that bays for his blood.

[…] I’ve never been shy about delving into conspiratorial terrain, despite the common responses to posts that examine conspiracy culture, which is ridicule. I’ve even received a sort of well meaning warning for exploring my gut suspicion regarding the alleged Aurora gunman, James Holmes. […]